Haptic Aurality
On Touching the Voice in Drag Lip-Sync Performance
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4012779 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jacob Mallinson Bird (University of Oxford, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 45-64 |
| Publication date | 2020-01-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sound Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2055-1940 • E-ISSN: 2055-1959 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/20551940.2019.1640512 |
| OpenAlex | W2965967722 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 29 |
Lip-syncing is a ubiquitous phenomenon within the drag community. From high-femme queens to gender-queer club kids, lip-syncing is the drag queen’s modus operandi. Within this article, I will interrogate a particular claim made by one of London’s premier drag queens, the mononymous Rodent, in which they argue that an intensely high volume of sound is necessary to create a successful lip-sync performance. Using interview quotations from Rodent, I chart the importance of an immersive soundscape in lip-syncing, one that allows the drag queen to engage tactually with sound’s vibrations. Synthesising Rodent’s comments, I propose that they engage in a form of “haptic aurality”, drawing upon theories set forth by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, as well as Laura Marks. Using this theory, I then argue that the reason haptic aurality results in a successful performance is due to the way in which it helps to suture the break between drag queen and loudspeaker, facilitating the reperformance, dramatisation, and extension of the processes of everyday speech, as set out by Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Aesthetics · Art · Drag · Performative utterance · Psychoanalysis · Queer · Sociology · Visual arts · Communication · Computer Science · Engineering · Music History and Culture · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Psychology · Sound Studies and Aurality
The Skin of the Film
A Voice and Nothing More
Japanoise
For More than One Voice
Sounds
The Senses of Touch
Space-Dis-Place
Leaky Bodies and Boundaries
Breaching bodily boundaries
This Body Which Is Not One
Bodies That Matter
Producing Sense, Comsuming Sense, Making Sense
Sensing Sound
Vibrating materialities
A thousand plateaus
The Autonomy of Affect
Between silence and pain
Embodied sound
An anthropologist underwater
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |